PC wrapped up an anti-climatic out of conference with another dominant win against an inferior opponent. PC held Albany to 55 points on 28% shooting. Six players scored in double figures for the Friars, continuing a theme of balanced offensive outputs that made last year’s Friar squad so dangerous.
We recap the game below as we look towards Big East play.
Revisiting Keys to Game
We previewed the game here: https://theprovidencecrier.com/2022/12/10/friars-wrap-up-non-conference-play-host-albany/#more-5436
Bynum’s Shooting Slump – There were a plethora of questions heading into this season. I don’t think anybody would have anticipated Bynum’s scoring ability to be a question mark heading into Big East play. This is one of the head scratchers of the season thus far.
Bynum was a non-factor today, due to the margin of victory and lack of need for him to force the issue. He was the only starter to not score in double digits, finishing with 6 points on 3/5 shooting.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how his game translates to Big East play this year. I think the higher level caliber of opponent has a net positive effect, and we absolutely will see shades of last year’s Bynum. To the point made above, it is bewildering that this is a question we are still waiting for an answer to, as the majority of PC fans presumed he’d be the constant on this squad filled with new faces.
Drumgoole Makes it Rain – First off, he should be on the “All-Name” team. With that behind us, Providence actually did a superb job on him. He scored 19 points but did it on 5-14 shooting from deep and 6-20 from the floor. No other player was in double figures, and Albany was held to a season low 55 points. Impressive job on the defensive end by the Friars.
Getting Offensive – 93 points no matter how it plays out is impressive. Providence is now averaging 80 points/game. The most impressive thing is the balance in scoring. 6 players are averaging north of 8 points a game, with 3 players in double digits. That is eerily reminiscent of last year where 3 players scored double digits, and 5 players averaged more than 9 points a game. That balance is a great thing.
Non-Bynum Guard Play – The Albany version of Locke is the starting 2 guard we all envisioned transferring in. His shot quality was tremendous, and he didn’t force the issue. If Providence can get somewhere in the vicinity of 9-13 points per game from Locke with the level of efficiency we saw yesterday, the burden is lessened significantly for the rest of the starters.
Breed continued his streak of fantastic play off the bench, scoring 10 points on 3-3 shooting. He’s an absolute constant in the rotation moving forward.
Pierre showed how bright his future is, tallying a team high 11 assists with no turnovers. It was in garbage time, but 11 assists is 11 assists. He’ll be an All-Conference point guard before his career is over.
I think as we head into Big East play, we will continue to see Locke starting with Breed the first guard off the bench. Cooley clearly trusts Breed tremendously, and he knows he can coach Breed hard. Alyn has shown that he is not only a solid role player, but is developing into a two-way asset. Pierre will be volatile, but likely play the spark plug role off the bench. These are just my 2 cents, of course…
Imposing Will on Glass…Again – PC continues to dominate the boards against inferior opponents, as it should. They out-rebounded the Great Danes by 18 total rebounds. Most surprising is that, to date, Providence is top 3 in the Big East in rebounds per game. What we may have thought was a glaring weakness on the team may actually turn out to be a strength. I think the rebounding abilities of Hopkins and Carter have a lot to do with this.
Three Point Shooting may be an Issue – Providence went 21% from deep in this one and is in the bottom third of the Big East in 3 point % at 32.7%. With Bynum struggling offensively, I’d anticipate this number to be this low. I’m hopeful we can get this number up to 35-36% by year’s end.
PC’s next game is the Big East opener on the road Saturday against Seton Hall.